West Indies : Team Analysis : World Cup

The West Indies cricket team is much like the Indian Men’s Hockey Team. No, we are not saying this only because both won a World Cup in 1975. The path they have followed in the most important event in the respective sports are quite similar. They were world beaters. Opponents feared them. They had the greatest ever playing for them. The fairy tale lasted for decades but when it ended, the stark reality was too hard to digest, even for the neutral.

Both teams had their fair share of disputes with the organisation. They always possessed individual brilliance but have struggled to play together as a team. The popularity of the sport in the respective countries too have gone down alarmingly in the last couple of decades. There has been a desperate attempt by both organisational bodies to revive the situation but the positive results have not appeared yet.

These days, people don’t expect the West Indies to win against Test playing nations. People become happy if they produce one or two moments of individual brilliance and if they do well with both bat and ball, it’s a bonus. Sounds harsh, but this is the truth.

The administration issues are plaguing their progress the most. Revolts by the players and their association has been a regular affair.

Now, to top all these, their Wold Cup squad doesn’t have Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Sunil Narine. The first two were not selected and the last one withdrew from the squad despite being selected to play in the World Cup. Nikita Miller has been picked to fill Narine’s shoes but those are big shoes to fill and Miller would find his work cut out.

The fast bowling duo of Kemar Roach and Jerome Taylor can be deadly on certain days but the problem is that on most days both of them lose control and end up bowling on both sides of the wicket, on a regular basis.

Darren Bravo looks like Brian Lara when he bats but is yet to unearth that x-factor which would take him closer to the genius from Trinidad, in terms of batting pedigree. The World Cup is going to be a big test for him.

The mere mention of Marlon Samuels’ and Chris Gayle’s name can make a bowler perspire. But their form has always been volatile. They can win matches single handedly but the frequency of that happening has sadly lessened over the last few years.

The most important members of the West Indies team are, without a shade of doubt, Andre Russell and Darren Sammy. The young Jason Holder must find a way to use Russell’s talent optimally.

Sammy, Gayle, Samuels and Russell will make sure that there is no shortage of individual brilliance in the West Indies XI. But, as has been touched upon earlier, the big question is whether they can play along with each other or not, whether they can play for each other or not.

The charm of West Indies’ past often makes a cricket romantic judge their performances while looking through rose-tinted glasses. But, a more realistic head-driven approach would make one feel that they don’t have a realistic chance of progressing to the semi-finals. They have been consistently poor against higher ranked teams in the recent past.

Their match against Ireland would not be as one-sided as some might think it should be. West Indies versus Pakistan is one fixture which no one dares to predict. Even the best of analytics can fail in front of the unpredictability these two teams can potentially offer. They should beat Zimbabwe and U.A.E .

They will find it very difficult against the South Africans at Sydney. It will be an upset if they manage to topple the Proteas.

West Indies versus India at Perth is an interesting fixture. The venue, besides a struggling Indian batting line up, gives West Indies the best chance. It shouldn’t surprise anyone if this match gets decided in the 100th over of the day.

Overall, West Indies should qualify for the knock-outs but any progress beyond the initial knock-out round should be deemed as surprising.

Cricket lovers will “Rally Round the West Indies” and hope that they can find enough opportunities to celebrate, in a way that is entirely theirs.